The Many Advantages of Digital Records

On my most recent vacation, I was reminded of a not-so-long-ago time when I would carry a camera bag, a pocket phone book of numbers, a long-distance calling card, and a portable cassette player to listen to music. Okay, maybe it was actually a long time ago, but it was still in my lifetime. Now I have all four of these necessities neatly packed into packed into a small handheld phone. Even the quality of the photos has become exceptional!

From then until now, the changes have sometimes been awkward—but mostly freeing. Technology has come a long way in a lifetime.

Is Digital Record Management Worth It?

Culture keeps on changing and records management follows suit. Is your company operating with 100 percent hard copy files, 100 percent digital files, or somewhere in between? Maybe you’ve wondered about going digital but have delayed the transition because you’re not sure the change is worth the time, cost and work required to make the move.

Every company is unique, so here is a list of the advantages of digital records to help you weigh your decision making.

1. Accuracy

When you outsource your scanning to a professional scanning service, you get error checking during the scanning process. When you’re ready to access a file, you can update and edit it quickly and easily while maintaining document version control. It is far less time consuming and simpler than digging through paper files and having to either manually replace or purge files. Digital records allow you to maintain documents and files with ease.

2. Accessibility

When your records are stored digitally in a central system, with each document or file accessible only to authorized staff members, the information is both secure and easily retrievable.

When your hard copy records are properly scanned, they can index each document using keywords as well as include optical character recognition (OCR) in the scanning process, providing you with the ability to search every word of every scanned document. No more trying to guess where a document was filed—you can find what you need quickly.

3. Availability

Documents that are available to multiple departments promotes team collaboration and permits members to work together on projects despite where they are or when they work on the project. Digital records provide worldwide, 24/7 information availability, even for documents that used to be hard copy only.

4. Archival Ability

Wouldn’t it be great to clear out those dusty file cabinets you used to rely so heavily on? After all, when you are no longer tethered to hard copy records, you can ditch the filing, re-filing, and annual file room cleanouts. In addition, you will get back valuable space that can be used productively.

If your business has already maximized your available space and you have been considering adding more space through construction, purchase, or lease, this may be a welcome relief. Digital files can be stored in the cloud, occupying zero floor space.

5. Avert Physical Damage

Your paper files are susceptible to a wide range of disasters including rodents, water, fire, smoke, humidity and temperature fluctuations. While digital files can also be damaged, e-vaulting your backups protects against a total loss of your organization’s valuable information.

Pacific Records provides document scanning services along with a full range of records and information management services to clients in California’s Central Valley. For more information, call us at 800-685-9034 or complete the form on this page. Our scanning experts are standing by to help.